Replicating machines making most of everything we need is a bit too much from many a mind. Wheres it all going?

the prospect of amazing powers in the hands of hairless apes is going to lead to 'interesting times'.

anything is possible, from heaven on earth to utter destruction. almost wish i was going to be around to watch, but i am confident the outcome will be closer to the less palatable end of the spectrum and that is somewhat comforting.

I have a big interest in these sort of things as well Gibo. A good book to read is "The meaning of the 21st Century" by James Martin. Very interesting read!

I think self replicating machines are at least a hundred year or so away but I think self replicating software is only 20 or 30 years away.

Thanks EasyTimes. I first read about in on a Prophecy News Watch newsletter. I was amazed to see them talking about replicating machines the size of washing machines you simply fed in the basic materials and it pumped out what you wanted.
Sort of like the Star Trek-the Next Generation replicators. "Tea, Earl Grey, black" Picarde says to the machine and out she pops.
One concern on the report was that repicator machines could be used to replicate themselves thus out of the orginal one machine you might get 20 and in the end all of the replicating would crash the world economy. Its was a bit heavy.

I dont think there is anything to be worried about with these machines Gibo.

If they did get to that stage and crashed the world economy... who cares we have these machines that make what ever we like who needs the economy?

There would obviously need to be laws specifically for these sorts of devices and I am sure the government would be watching thhere development like a hawk.

The bigger concern is the self replicating software which will be around in 20 or 30 years. This software will be able to write itself and do a better job then any human can. It will quickly be writing programs which will be impossible for the human interlec to understand. It will be interesting to see how governments will deal with things that nobody of flesh and blood can grasp.